Im Sang Oh's research while affiliated with Seoul National University and other places

Measurements of ocean color from Geostationary Ocean Color Imager (GOCI) with a moderate spatial resolution and a high temporal frequency demonstrate high value for a number of oceanographic applications. This study aims to propose and evaluate the calibration of GOCI as needed to achieve the level of radiometric accuracy desired for ocean color studies. Previous studies reported that the GOCI retrievals of normalized water-leaving radiances (nLw) are biased high for all visible bands due to the lack of vicarious calibration. The vicarious calibration approach described here relies on the assumed constant aerosol characteristics over the open-ocean sites to accurately estimate atmospheric radiances for the two near-infrared (NIR) bands. The vicarious calibration of visible bands is performed using in situ nLw measurements and the satellite-estimated atmospheric radiance using two NIR bands over the case-1 waters. Prior to this analysis, the in situ nLw spectra in the NIR are corrected by the spectrum optimization technique based on the NIR similarity spectrum assumption. The vicarious calibration gain factors derived for all GOCI bands (except 865nm) significantly improve agreement in retrieved remote-sensing reflectance (Rrs) relative to in situ measurements. These gain factors are independent of angular geometry and possible temporal variability. To further increase the confidence in the calibration gain factors, a large data set from shipboard measurements and AERONET-OC is used in the validation process. It is shown that the absolute percentage difference of the atmospheric correction results from the vicariously calibrated GOCI system is reduced by ~6.8%.

This paper describes an atmospheric correction algorithm for Geostationary Ocean Color Imager (GOCI) and its early phase evaluation. This algorithm was implemented in GOCI Data Processing System (GDPS) version 1.1. The algorithm is based on the standard SeaWiFS method, which accounts for multiple scattering effects and partially updated in terms of turbid case-2 water correction, optimized aerosol models, and solar angle correction per slot. For turbid water correction, we used a regional empirical relationship between water reflectance at the red (660 nm) and near infrared bands (745 nm and 865 nm). The relationship was derived from turbid pixels in satellite images after atmospheric correction, and processed using aerosol properties derived for neighboring non-turbid waters. For validation of the GOCI atmospheric correction, we compared our results with in situ measurements of normalized water leaving radiance (nL w ) spectra that were obtained during several cruises in 2011 around Korean peninsula. The match up showed an acceptable result with mean ratio of the GOCI to in situ nL w (λ), 1.17, 1.24, 1.26, 1.15, 0.86 and 0.99 at 412 nm, 443 nm, 490 nm, 555 nm, 660 nm and 680 nm, respectively. It is speculated that part of the deviation arose from a lack of vicarious calibration and uncertainties in the above water nLw measurements.

A climatology for the mixed layer depth (MLD) in the East/Japan Sea was produced using temperature profile data collected from 1931 to 2005. MLD is defined as the depth at which the temperature differs from that at 10 m depth by 0.2 degrees C. It varies seasonally with a range of about 20 m, a minimum, near the subpolar front (SPF, 38 degrees-41 degrees N), 60-100 m in south of 38 degrees N and north of 41 degrees N, and about 200 m near the winter convection region (132 degrees-135 degrees E & 41 degrees-43 degrees N). The weaker seasonality near the SPF seems to result from year-round strong stratification sustained largely by advected warm water of the East Korean Warm Current and a result of complex dynamic process of frontogenesis including lateral dynamics or wind-induced friction. The temperature-based MLD does not show any significant difference (mostly less than 20 m) from the density-based values over most of the East/Japan Sea except a few localized regions near the Russian and Japanese coasts where barrier layers form from late fall through early spring. This study confirms that atmospheric forcing largely dominates the overall magnitude of MLD seasonal variability in most of the East/Japan Sea.

A climatology for the mixed layer depth (MLD) in the East/Japan Sea was produced using temperature profile data collected from 1931 to 2005. MLD is defined as the depth at which the temperature differs from that at 10m depth by 0.2 °C. It varies seasonally with a range of about 20 m, a minimum, near the subpolar front (SPF, 38°–41°N), 60–100min south of 38°N and north of 41°N, and about 200mnear the winter convection region (132°–135°E & 41°–43°N). The weaker seasonality near the SPF seems to result from year-round strong stratification sustained largely by advected warm water of the East Korean Warm Current and a result of complex dynamic process of frontogenesis including lateral dynamics or wind-induced friction. The temperature-based MLD does not show any significant difference (mostly less than 20 m) from the density-based values over most of the East/Japan Sea except a few localized regions near the Russian and Japanese coasts where barrier layers form from late fall through early spring. This study confirms that atmo- spheric forcing largely dominates the overall magnitude of MLD seasonal variability in most of the East/Japan Sea. ©

This study explores the effects of the Changjiang (also called the Yangtze River) river discharge (CRD) on the density stratifications and associated sea surface temperature (SST) changes using a global ocean general circulation model with regional focus on the Yellow and East China Seas (YECS). It is found that CRD increases the SST in summer through a barrier layer (BL) formation that tends to enhance stratification at the mixed layer base, and thus reduces both vertical mixing and entrainment. This process is effective, particularly in August, after the CRD reaches its maximum in July. The SST difference between the composites of flood and drought years confirms that the surface warming is related to surface freshening by the CRD. This result suggests that the BL induced by the CRD is an important contributor to the surface heat budget in the YECS.

The wind stress over ocean is a crucial surface forcing in the storm surge modeling. This study investigates the effect of surface wind stress parameterizations and grid resolutions on the storm surge modeling. Three drag coefficient (Cd) formulas at high wind speeds have been tested for the Super Typhoon Maemi (2003) using the grid resolution of 1/12°, 1/60°, and 1/360°: (i) the linearly-increasing Cd by Wu [Wu, J., 1982. Wind-stress coefficients over sea surface from breeze to hurricane. J. Geophys. Res. 87, 9704--9706], (ii) the fast-increasing Cd by the WAVEWATCH III (WW3) model, and (iii) the leveling-off Cd by the coupled wind–wave (CWW) model. Experimental results show that a higher resolution model that has a better resolution of complex topography and the coastline produces higher surge, on the average. In particular, when the grid resolution of the storm surge model is greatly improved, the CWW model with the leveling-off Cd at high winds shows the best performance in the surge simulation, while both WW3 and Wu models with unrealistic high Cd at high winds tend to produce an overestimated surge.

Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) chlorophyll-a distribution in summer in the East China Sea during 1998–2007 was analyzed. Statistical analysis with K-means clustering technique allowed us to define the proper satellite chlorophyll-a concentration indicating the Changjiang Diluted Water (CDW). The spatial distributions of the higher satellite chlorophyll-a concentrations (>0.48 mg m−3) corresponded well with the distributions of lower salinity CDW (<30–32) every year. Interannual variation of the CDW area, indicated by the high satellite chlorophyll-a, correlated with the interannual variation of the Changjiang summer freshwater discharge. The correlation analysis indicated that the CDW spread eastward in the East China Sea with a time lag of 1 to 2 months after the discharge.

This paper presents a wave measurement technique based on single-video monitoring of moored buoys. A simple photogrammetry is proposed, with a constraint that the distance from video camera to buoy should be predetermined. The distance is approximated to a constant under the condition that it is much greater than the range of the buoy motion. Image coordinates of a buoy are mapped onto a spherical surface without significant errors in vertical ground coordinates. Wave characteristics are comparable to those from a bottom pressure gauge, indicating that the video technique has the potential to remotely measure waves in coastal environments. We anticipate our finding to be a starting point for an economic instrument of wave measurement through development of an automated image processing technique.

The surface circulation of northern South China Sea (hereafter SCS) for the period 1987–2005 was studied using the data of more than 500 satellite-tracked drifters and wind data from QuikSCAT. The mean flow directions in the northern SCS except the Luzon Strait (hereafter LS) during the periods October~March was southwestward, and April~September northeastward. A strong northwestward intrusion of the Kuroshio through the LS appears during the October~March period of northeasterly wind, but the intrusion became weak between April and September. When the strong intrusion occurred, the eddy kinetic energy (EKE) in the LS was 388 cm2/s2 which was almost 2 times higher than that during the weak-intrusion season. The volume transport of the Kuroshio in the east of the Philippines shows an inverse relationship to that of the LS. There is a six-month phase shift between the two seasonal phenomena. The volume transport in the east of the Philippines shows its peak sis-month earlier faster than that of the LS. The strong Kuroshio intrusion is found to be also related to the seasonal variation of the wind stress curl generated by the northeasterly wind. The negative wind stress curl in the northern part of LS induces an anticyclonic flow, while the positive wind stress curl in the southern part of LS induces a cyclonic flow. The northwestward Kuroshio intrusion in the northern part of LS happened with larger negative wind stress curl, while the westward intrusion along 20.5°N in the center of the LS occurred with weaker negative wind stress curl.